In July of I paid Mr. Sharley Watkins $350.00 to order a back panel to my 1998 Toyota Celica convertible. The total cost of the job was to be $550.00. I had several problems dealing with Mr. Watkins, which are detailed in the time line below. Essentially, five months after paying for this part, I never received it from him and he has refused to repay these monies to me.
I asked for the money back in person and by letter, and he had originally promised to give it back but has neglected to do so. I sued him in small claims court and won, but he has still refused to pay me back. I have entered a JD Rule in court, to which he neglected to show up. I have issued a warrant for his arrest and that's where it stands today in January.
Sharley Watkins is a liar and a thief. Do not do business with him.
Timeline of Events:
July
The back glass separated from the back panel on my 1998 Toyota Celica convertible. I brought the car to the local Hammond Toyota dealership and they told me they could not do the work. I asked my uncle who he would recommend to work on the car, since he had owned several convertibles in the past. He recommended Mr. Sharley Watkins.
I visited Mr. Watkins, who owns and operates Sharley Watkins Car Wash and Auto Detailing on Club Deluxe in Hammond. He stated that he had years of experience doing this kind of work and told me the cost he would charge a total of $550.00 for the whole job. I told him I would think about it.
7/28/04
I went to Mr. Watkins' business and we agreed to the terms of the verbal contract for him to do the work. He asked for a down payment of $350.00 to cover his cost for ordering the part. I wrote check #4029 and I was in the office as he ordered the part. Mr. Watkins told me the part would be in within two weeks and said he would call me when it arrived.
8/20/04
I had not heard from Mr. Watkins so I called him. He stated that he did not know what was going wrong but that the part had not arrived. He stated he would attempt to track it down and find out where it was.
Throughout the next six weeks, I would check in with Mr. Watkins periodically, asking for an update. He very rarely contacted me to give me status updates. At the sixth week mark, the part finally arrived and Mr. Watkins arranged to pick up my car.
8/30/04
Mr. Watkins picked up my car, but returned it that day. He stated that when he had tried to put the back panel in, it wouldn't work correctly. He showed me two small clamps that he said were bent that would have to be replaced in order for the part to work correctly. He stated he had already ordered them, and that they would be in within a couple days, but it took
over two weeks.
9/14/04
Mr. Watkins came to pick up my car once again. He called me later that day and told me that the company he ordered from had sent him the wrong part. He said the back panel that was sent to him was a differentone than the one he ordered. He said he would have to reorder the part. I was extremely frustrated, but I trusted that he was knowledgeable enough to know whether it was the right part or not.
He said he would send it back to the company he ordered it from, and also maintained that that company agreed to pay for half of my labor costs to compensate me for the mistake. The process started all over, with me very rarely hearing from Mr. Watkins. I constantly had to call him to find out what was going on with the part, and he always maintained that he didn't understand why it was taking so long, that this had never happened before.
11/8/04
The second panel finally arrived and Mr. Watkins arranged to pick my car up to complete the work. Once again, Mr. Watkins called and told me that the part had not fit the car. He claimed that he had someone who works with specialty glass from Biloxi come to look at it, and that person told him that my car top was custom made.
Mr. Watkins maintained that that is why the factory ordered part wasn't fitting. At this point, I was so incredibly upset that the work was still not done. However, Mr. Watkins insisted that he could get the part from the man from Biloxi and that it would fit. He also, for the first time, revealed that this is the first time he's had to deal with a canvas top like mine and it's a learning experience.
I asked Mr. Watkins if I should just get a refund at that point and go our separate ways, but he insisted that he wanted to make me happy with his work and he implied that he has his reputation to maintain by completing the work.
11/9/04
At the end of this phone call, I agreed to let him continue the work. However, over night, I did some research on the internet and could find no evidence that my car top was custom made. Additionally, I realized that my back glass has a defrost built into the window, and I was concerned that the part he was ordering would not have that.
I called Mr. Watkins and expressed these concerns. Again, he insisted that I wouldn't lose anything and that the window would have the defrost. Mr. Watkins said he would order the part on 11/9/04, that it would be in on 11/12/04 and that he would put it in my car on 11/15/04.
11/17/04
I did not hear from Mr. Watkins on the scheduled pick up day (11/15/04). I called him on 11/17/04 and asked him what was going on. He claimed he was incredibly busy and asked if he could pick it up the following week on 11/23/04. At this point, I became convinced that Mr. Watkins was not being honest and essentially had no idea what he was doing. He also appeared to think he was doing me a favor by working on my car, constantly putting other work in front of my own, even though it had been four months since I paid for the part.
11/24/04
My suspicions were confirmed when I did not hear from Mr. Watkins on 11/23/04. I decided to bring my car to Tops Unlimited in Baton Rouge for a second opinion. The owner/operator of Tops Unlimited told me that the claim that my top was custom made was absolutely false. He said the tear was caused by the sun and heat (which I interpret to mean that those clamps Mr. Watkins replaced were never really broken).
He also showed me that it appeared as though whoever had worked on it had tried to separate the glass from the black cloth and then tried to glue it back together (see attached pictures). He said he could do the work for around the same price as I originally contracted with Mr. Watkins.
12/9/04
I went to Tops Unlimited and made a down payment of $100.00 to order the part.
12/10/04
I was notified the part was in.
12/12/04
The part was put in my car by Tops Unlimited. It fit, it works, and there have been absolutely no problems.
12/14/04
I wrote Mr. Watkins a demand letter (attached) which outlined the facts as I saw them and asked that he refund me the $350.00 that was paid to him by 1/4/05. I have never heard from Mr. Watkins. However, my uncle (who originally recommended Mr. Watkins and who was unaware of what had happened) ran into Mr. Watkins and in passing asked him if he'd finished the work on my car, to which Mr. Watkins lied and told him that he had indeed completed it.
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